HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL

Today is my husband's birthday!  These are the cards we made for him.  The first is the card that I designed.  It uses crushed curry card stock as the background.  I precut that card stock to fold 4.25 by 7 inches.  I like that it is a longer than a traditional A2 card just because it is nice to give the hubby something a little different.  I used the stamp set grunge rock (guitars, crown and sentiment), extreme guitar (guitar player) and Extreme elements.  These sets are really cool.  After stamping I ran the card through the Big Shot with the square lattice die to emboss. I really like the effect.

This card was done by my son JP with a little help from me.  The card base is Bermuda Bay card stock.  The dsp is the tropical dsp from the summer mini catalog.  The stamped images and sentiment are from a NEW stamp set called Party On.  I stamped the balloons and Happy Birthday directly onto the dsp and then added crystal effects.  I stamped the pennants and then cut them out, punched holes in the top corners and added 1/8 inch basic black taffeta ribbon, and the die cut letters "dad" from Timeless Type (exclusive Big Shot letters for SU!)

This last card I made for Luigi to sign for his daddy.  I wheeled the SU! wheel P is for Paw with soft suede ink over a crumb cake card stock base.  Next, I ran the card through the Big Shot using the square lattice die.  I also die cut part of the top note die (exclusive to SU!) and stamped the dog and the paws from D is for Dog and the happy birthday from Party On.  The ribbon is dotted grosgrain soft suede which is retired but I love it and so I bought extra for personal use.

I had to show you the inside of the card because Luigi actually stamped his paws inside (with a little help of course - and I did get the ink off really easily with a washcloth). 


Well, here's hoping your birthday is really nice Bill!

CARD FOR THE FOURTH AND FIREWORKS AT THE CAPITOL

This has to be one of the fastest cards I have ever made. I quickly took my brand new SU! red, white and blue wheel and wheeled it in white across real red card stock. Then I stamped extreme elements in white (white stars) on night of navy card stock and another background stamp from the set onto the star. The red was backed with white scalloped along the edge and all the colored card stock was brushed with white. There is a clear rhinestone brad in the center of the stars which I popped up with a dimensional. The red white and blue (yes that is what it is called) is really great to have because it is so patriotic and you don't need to use it only for the 4th of July. There are so many great uses and I can't wait to use it to scrapbook trips to Williamsburg, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC and more. And of course it will be great for craft projects and cards.
Here is a photo I took of the fireworks in DC. Really cool to get a somewhat sharp photo of the fireworks and the monuments at night!

Happy 4th Everyone and Happy Birthday USA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER FRANK

Today is my youngest brother Frank's birthday. I wanted to send him something really bright and cheerful. I used the extreme elements stamp set for the background and used as many bright colors I thought he would like. One of my favorite things to do is to tie ribbon with a few different colors. It is something unique to do and really adds dimension to the card.
The envelope and the inside of the card are done similar to the outside. The colors of card stock that I used are summer sun, tempting turquoise and whisper white. The elements in the stamp set are so cool. By the way the biker is the single stamp extreme dirt bike, which is a really cool stamp to have. I stamped him in basic black full strength ink on the outside of the card, but stamped off once on the inside.
Here's the whole ensemble. I did a similar card with the surfer for my brother Anthony. I haven't mailed his card yet because his birthday is on the 19th of March. I'll be sending his card soon, so I'll post that when we are closer to the birthday.

Happy Birthday Frank!

RemARKable Open House Blog Tour - Day 2

INSIDE MY SU! STUDIO I FOUND A POP UP TWIRL CARD

I don't know if you have seen these cards yet. They were featured on one of the popular Stampin websites a week or so ago. They are called the Twirl Card. Linda Kincaid one of my downline demonstrated to us how to make this card and for sure it had to go in my SU! studio as a card I will save and treasure forever. This card is the one that I made casing Linda's original and using the Starring You stamp set that you can earn for FREE during Sale-a-bration. The envelope below the card uses the extreme elements set that is really a fabuluous accent stamp set that everyone should own!
The set also features the FYI stamp set and several great SU! punches - the large and small star, the 1 3/4 inch circle, the ticket corner and the two different square punches. I love the colors as well - real red, summer sun, and tempting turquoise.
The premise for this card is that when you open it up the inside sentiment twirls to show different designs on the back and front of the punched square. The Starring you stamp set was perfect for this.
I used another punch Linda brought - the word window punch - to showcase the sentiment celebrate you which is also in the starring you stamp set.
As you open the card further, the sentiment continues to twirl. It is so cool.
CLICK ON THIS PHOTO BELOW TO SEE CARD TWIRL! be patient with the brief video - this is the first time I ever did a video. Let it run about 10 seconds and the whole card will come into view - promise!

Many thanks to Linda for bringing this design to our stamping group. It was a truly fun card to make and I can't wait to try some more. If you need to know where to get directions to make the card, email me (link above in my blog header). Now onto another blog on the tour so you can see what is inside all of the homes!

GREAT CARD BY LINDA KINCAID

I received this AWESOME card from Linda Kincaid, totally handmade, wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving. I know that Thanksgiving is over and we are now into the Christmas Season, but this card was too beautiful not to show you. What is really magnificent is that she not only stamped the image (Harvest Home) and water colored it, but she made her own designer paper by stamping the Canvas print stamp and extreme elements onto the circle card stock. The pattern she created which she stamped on crush curry is just amazing!
The background card stock is rich razzleberry and the ribbon matches, with just a small piece of crushed curry and then a rhinestone brad. This card is just absolutely beautiful in person. I was so lucky to get a copy that I displayed it right at the inside of my front door in a very prominent position. If you notice on the card, Linda added another personal touch by adding crystal effects.

MORE PIRATES

I couldn't help it, I had to post two more BEWARE PIRATES cards. This stamp set and the EXTREME ELEMENTS are so cool! My card base above is black. The stars are white craft ink. I highlighted the skull's teeth with my white gel pen. The ribbon is so neat. It is striped wide old olive grosgrain. This comes in basic black, only orange and chocolate chip. I love these ribbons.
This card uses really rust, chocolate chip and ultra smooth white colors.

BEWARE PIRATES

I just love this set called Beware Pirates. It reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow. I have a few cards done with this set and I'll feature some of them this week. This set goes great with the extreme elements stamp set also. I stamped those stamps first on ultras mooth white. The ink is more mustard, creamy caramel and chocolate chip. I then used ballet blue for the Pirate. The card stock all match the ink colors. The statement a real hero is someone who puts beliefs into actions is from the stamp set service and sacrifice. I used my distress tool from SU! to rough the edges.

A CARD MAKING EVENING AT LINDA'S HOME

Last evening we were invited to Linda's new home for a fun evening of stamping. It was such a great night. Linda is a super hostess. She told us to come an hour earlier for a light meal of soup and salad. When we arrived she had homemade chicken soup, greek salad, watermelon, fruit, sausage/cheese sombreros (Eileen's famous recipe), veggies, chips, caramel corn, cheesecake, cookies, homemade brownies and iced tea. It was fabulous. Linda gave everyone the grand tour of her new home and introduced us to her new great Dane Bella. She is the sweetest dog. After the fabulous meal, we sat down for a great evening of card making. Everyone had a nice evening.

Here is the first card we did. Linda designed this using the extreme elements stamp set. You can't go wrong with this set. It makes the best backgrounds. And this was the perfect stamp set to use because this month the SU! promotion is that if you buy $35 in the growing up section (yeah, the extreme elements is in that section) you get a pack of designer buttons FREE. Linda is demonstrating in this photo with Janet next to her and Carol looking on.

Carol is stamping in this next photo. The first step is to stamp your main image in black and emboss it. After that you can add the elements in any color ink you love.

This is Linda's great envelope. I love it. notice how she chose most of the new SU! in colors for her ink choices.

Carol and Sue are stamping here. They both really liked the cards we did.

Try as I might, I can't get this next image to come in the right way. Despite that I still had to show you this creation by Sue. I love her big splash of color underneath the skate boarder.

A night of stamping wouldn't be complete if Katie didn't demonstrate some fabulous creation. Here she is showing her card to the group.

Katie used the stamp set Pendant Park and a new Autumn Splendor stamp set coming out in just a few days (holiday mini Sept. 1). She tied the ribbon in a very unique way that I have not seen done before.

Tomorrow I'll post the rest of the cards we did.